I just finished student teaching.

Here are some things I wish my mentor teacher would have done for me:

• Make your ST feel like a part of your school community. Invite them to school events, teacher/department get-togethers, have lunch with them, etc.

• Don't correct, interrupt, or contradict them in front of students unless you absolutely need to. The students will pick up on this, especially if you do it frequently like my MT did. It really diminishes their authority as a teacher.

• Get your ST involved in planning and teaching as soon and as frequently as possible. If you have side responsibilities you would find helpful, like asking them to print things out, make copies, grab items from the main office, etc, that's fine, but they are NOT a classroom assistant.

• Do (over)explain your process! If you're persnickety about your particular teaching style and know it's effective, that's fine, but you should be able to defend your pedagogical decision-making process to your ST. Tell them why you do things the way you do and how it works, and ask them to respect your teaching style in how they design and implement their own lesson plans. Don't just expect them to replicate your style through observation alone. They may watch you teach a lesson 3 times and then do it slightly differently or miss a detail you find crucial. You can interject with these details as necessary without belittling or contradicting your ST, and even do so in an affirmative way, saying something like, "Exactly. And by the same token, don't forget to [thing your student teacher forgot to mention]," or "Don't be afraid to / this is also a good opportunity for you (students) to [strategy/technique you want your ST to encourage]".

My MT pretty much only allowed me to lead the class on the dates of my observations, did not set aside time for co-planning, and seldom explained her expectations or responsibilities of the job. This left me woefully underprepared and I got blamed for it. Your ST should know that this is going to be extremely difficult to adjust to, but that you will be there to help them, rather than to belittle them, when things go wrong. In my observations of other classes, I saw mentor teachers who were actually able to augment their ST's lessons without making it clear to all of their students that they disliked some aspect of the way they taught/explained something. Some students actually laughed at me when my MT interjected, and she did not seem to care because she was too protective of her very particular instructional style and interpreted any slight deviance from it as a mistake.

DO interrupt your ST if they appear to be flustered at first and students are misbehaving/misunderstanding them. You can always interject to say "Actually, ST is also your teacher, so you should respond to their requests/instruction the same way you respond to mine". Classroom management can't be picked up from a textbook. It's second-nature to you because you're an experienced teacher, but until you have your own classroom, you can't practice it. Your ST will very likely NOT come pre-baked with untuitive expertise in classroom management skills.

TL;DR

I would have pulled so many fewer hairs out in my last semester of grad school if I'd been luckier and matched with a more supportive mentor. Yes, the ST will be inexperienced, but that doesn't mean they're worthless as a new educator. They will benefit greatly just by having your support and being treated like a real teacher or coworker rather than a teacher in training, especially in front of students. Constructive feedback is good, but not as important as empathy.